Rock’s legendary voice, Brian Howe finds himself preparing for a history-making event and concert. Four March concerts are scheduled for Kuwait and Iraq and one is a “command performance” for the historic “Change of Command Ceremony”– Baghdad – March 12, 2010.

The Bad Company/Brian Howe/Kuwait/Iraq mini-tour is funded (and supported) by the U.S. Forces Iraq/Entertainment Branch. The “Change of Command Ceremony” marks the day the Iraq national police take partial command of Baghdad and it is the first phase of President Obama’s overall withdrawal of US troops – Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The Baghdad-based U.S. Forces Iraq had Bad Company’s Brian Howe on “their short list”. They called group’s agent, who told the band there was an offer from the Iraq Entertainment Branch requesting Brian and the band to perform four concerts in March. The call came however, just as Brian was making promotional plans for “Circus Bar”. Quick and simple – “Circus Bar’s launch” would be postponed for a week or two.

This out-of-the-blue “command performance” for the troops was an honor the band did not expect that day. The concerts in Kuwait and Iraq were not going to be ordinary concerts – there is a risk element in the mix. Brian and the band decided that even with their commitment to a heavy 2010 touring schedule, they could not pass up this chance of lifetime to give back to our men and women serving overseas.

“At first news, I could not believe what I was hearing – me going to Iraq? What are they going to do – parachute me in and ask me to sing on the way town to scare the Taliban? Seriously though, the boys and girls in uniform have been there for awhile without any real Rock ‘n Roll that I know of. I could not pass up the chance of doing concerts in Iraq. This time Baghdad is going to be rocked in a different way.

We are heading to a city where bombings occur on a daily basis. However, this time, it will be our explosive rock ‘n roll show that shakes Baghdad – Bad Company style.

The U.S. Forces division and their production expertise are well-known. This isn’t their first concert. Also, JeffThornton of Lone Wolf Entertainment is managing the dates along with my management/booking agency, Artists International Mgt. (Boca Raton, FL.). So I’d say we have our bases covered – Iraq and Baghdad here we come,” Howe said.

Frontiers Records is delighted to announce the release of BRIAN HOWE’s forthcoming solo album entitled “Circus Bar” on February 26th 2010 in Europe and March 9th in the USA.

Long regarded as one of rock’s legendary voices, Brian Howe started his career in 1983 as lead vocalist for Ted Nugent on the “Penetrator” album and fronting its band on the subsequent world tour. In 1984, drummer Simon Kirke and guitarist Mick Ralphs asked Brian to replace Paul Rodgers as the lead singer in Bad Company. Brian decided to accept the offer and continue the legend of the band. This was not an easy task, but along with Kirke and Ralphs, Brian created, wrote, recorded and toured for the following 10 years, headlining every major venue around the globe.

Along with Bad Company’s highly acclaimed 1993 live CD “What You Hear Is What You Get – The Best of Bad Company – Live“, Brian wrote and sold with Bad Company something like 19 million of records, highlighted by such radio and video hits as “Holy Water”, “If You Needed Somebody,” “No Smoke Without A Fire,” and “How About That,” – not to mention a few of the group’s previous hits as recorded on the “live” CD.

Thirteen years after the release of his debut solo album “Tangled in Blue” (later renamed “Touch” in Europe), Brian is back and ready to unleash his awesome new solo album entitled “Circus Bar”. “When I decided I wanted to make a new CD” tells Brian, ”I wanted to try to make everything memorable and enjoyable. Therefore I set aside a week for writing with my new producer Brooks Paschal and I decided we would go down to my favourite place in the entire world: Lake Atitlan , Guatemala, an incredibly inspirational place for me to be. We realized after three days that we had written enough songs for the CD and that took any pressure I had been feeling away and it soon became obvious that the CD should be named after that wonderful little bar where we spent our evenings eating, drinking and listening to the local music. The bar was started by circus performers and still has posters and pictures of all the great circus acts from throughout the years”.

Some friends helped Brian in shaping up “Circus Bar”, an album, which promises to be a career landmark for this amazing singer: Wayne Nelson of Little River Band dropped by the studio for a few days and also Pat Travers popped in and played guitar on “My Town“. “I didn’t want to have too many “established” musicians on the record because I wanted to keep the feel somewhat fresh and spontaneous”, explains Brian.

The album includes also two stunning – newly recorded – remakes of the Bad Company hits “How ‘Bout That” and “Holy Water”.

I’m Back; Life’s Mystery; There’s This Girl; Could Have Been You; Surrounded; Flying; How It Could Have Been; My Town; How ‘Bout That; Feels Like I’m Coming Home; If You Want Trouble; Feelings; Holy Water; Little George Street.

“I like to think that this CD is representative of an established artist with a modern outlook on what happening in today’s music scene” concludes Bryan. “It’s been 13 years since my last record and on this CD I have given them everything I have: music that appeals to anyone that likes big melodies with an edge”. 100% gold class awaits the faithful fans who will purchase “Circus Bar”, better believe it: Brian Howe is back to Rock !

Ted Nugent turned 60 years old today. In celebration of his birthday, I decided to break out my copy of his 1984 album, “Penetrator” for another spin.

When does a Ted Nugent CD not sound like a Ted Nugent CD? When Ted brought in Brian Howe (Bad Company) to sing on this record, it completely changed the sound of the music. The music on “Penetrator” is completely different from the hard rock most folks recognize as Ted Nugent’s. In fact, this disc treads the melodic rock/aor fence with its layered keyboard tracks. Nugent’s blazing guitar is here, but they keyboards really tone it down.

At times the style of Penetrator reminds me a lot of the band Bad English with its pop/rock tendencies.

Nugent rips it up on the song “Tied Up In Love”. I wish they would have left the keyboards off of this song. It really takes the song down a notch, and it doesn’t blend well with Nugent’s acrobatic guitar licks. This is a good song that could have been even better.

Once again, the ultra cheesy keyboards are back on” (Where Do You) Draw The Line”. The keyboards really date this song badly. Nugent’s playing is the best thing about this tune.

“Go Down Fighting” sounds like a lot Survivor tune. In fact, I thought I could hear parts of “Eye of the Tiger” in here. I think it is that same bass sound and rhythm. Aside from that this song is completely different, but it still doesn’t work for me.

The one song on “Penetrator” that does sound like classic Ted Nugent is the tune “Thunder Thighs”. This is the album’s one redeeming song, that I like quite a bit. In the CD booklet, Ted Nugent calls “Thunder Thighs” a career high point. I don’t know if I can completely agree with that statement or not, but it is high point of this album.

I can’t imagine what producer Ashley Howe was shooting for by adding all of the keyboards to the tracks on this song. Did he want the songs to be played on MTV or something? Ted Nugent is a great guitar player, and his style of music hard rock, not pop. It almost seems as if they were trying to have some crossover success with this album. The keyboards really messed up the sound of this record badly.

Brian Howe sounds great, as does Ted Nugent on guitar. If you can get over the cheesy keyboards on this disc, you might like it. This isn’t a Nugent record that I can listen to very often. I will stick with the classic stuff from the 70’s.